Herbie Rides Again (1974)

June 7, 1974

The Screen:' Herbie' Rides Again to Defend Landmarks

By VINCENT CANBY

Published: June 7, 1974

Walt Disney Productions' "Herbie Rides Again," which opened yesterday at the Radio City Music Hall, is a movie that takes a firm stand for the defense of architectural landmarks and against real estate developers like mean, greedy Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn), the sort of man who, when he sees Rome's Colosseum, dreams of replacing it with a shopping center.

The problem with comedies as witless as this is that the villains are much more appealing than the good guys. One winds up rooting for the fellows who would tear down the Plaza to put up a 100-story, glass-and-brass breadstick.

"Herbie Rides Again" is set in San Francisco and in that never-never land suggested by bad trick photography, when foreground objects have no visible relation to backgrounds. The film brings back the leading character of that earlier Disney box-office smash, "The Love Bug." Herbie, a 1963 Volkswagen sedan, is as bright and stanch as Lassie and 20 times as fast.

In the course of the movie he has a major part in the successful campaign of a Nice Little Old Lady, to ward off Alonzo Hawk's wreckers to save her home; an old firehouse on top of a San Francisco hill.

As played by Helen Hayes, the Nice Little Old Lady seems to be ineligible for sainthood only because of a minor technicality: she's still alive. She won't hear ill of anyone, she sees good in almost everything and she is able to converse with inanimate objects that, in addition to Herbie, include a retired San Francisco cable car and an ancient, upright music box.

The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh, who also collaborated on "Mary Poppins" and "The Love Bug." There's nothing harmful about "Herbie Rides Again"; it's simply not very good. All the technical and economic resources of the Disney empire cannot bring sincerity to a machine-made paean in praise of little-guy pluck.

Of course, I felt the same way about "The Love Bug" and it earned $21-million in the United States alone. "Herbie Rides Again" may make only $15-million.